this week in literature

FIRST SATURDAYS: AFRICAN INNOVATIONS

Unidentified Lega artist, “Three-Headed Figure (Sakimatwemtwe),” South Kivu or Maniema province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, wood, fiber, kaolin, nineteenth century (Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 2, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum celebrates Black History Month at February’s free First Saturdays program with a focus on the long-term installation “African Innovations,” which comprises approximately 200 works spread across 2,500 years. The evening will include live music by the Republic of Cameroon’s Kaïssa, the multinational Akoya Afrobeat, and Sierra Leone’s Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew, guided pop-up gallery tours, the debut of Zimbabwe dancer-choreographer Rujeko Dumbutshena’s Jenaguru, children’s workshops on traditional West African instruments and linguist staffs, a curator talk on “African Innovations” with Kevin D. Dumouchelle, the multimedia Afrika21 project, a screening of Africa Straight Up preceded by a discussion with Applause Africa, a fashion show with designs inspired by African textiles and music by Ethiopian DJ Sirak, and a book club discussion of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.

FIRST SATURDAYS: OUTSIDE THE FRAME

Mickalene Thomas will be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night to discuss beauty, race, and gender with fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems and curator Eugene Tsai (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, January 5, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program for January is highlighted by what should be a fascinating discussion, with artist Mickalene Thomas and one of her major influences, award-winning photographer and videographer Carrie Mae Weems, in conversation with curator Eugene Tsai; Thomas’s “Origin of the Universe” continues at the museum through January 20, while her smaller gallery shows in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side, “How to Organize a Room Around a Striking Piece of Art,” are on view through January 5. Also on the schedule that night are live music by Ljova and the Kontraband, Lez Zeppelin, Das Racist’s Himanshu “Heems” Suri, Prince Rama’s Taraka and Nimai Larson, who have formed the Now Age, and Company Stefanie Batten Bland, which will perform A Place of Sun, a dance piece inspired by the BP oil spill. In addition, Writers for the 99% will discuss their book, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America, Catherine Morris will give a curator talk on the exhibition “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” an art workshop will teach participants to get creative with frames, and Art House Co-op, Trade School, and the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory will lead interactive educational activities. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” Yoko Ono’s “Wish Tree,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.

CULTURE BROKERS: PUBLISHING / THE BOOK TRADE

S&S president and publisher Jonathan Karp will take part in panel discussion on Jewish participation in postwar publishing on Thursday

Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, December 6, $15, 6:30
212-294-8301
www.cjh.org

With the recent merger between Random House and Penguin and the possibility of HarperCollins buying Simon & Schuster, the ever-changing world of book publishing has been providing the business pages with plenty of column inches. The Center for Jewish History will examine the industry post-WWII, focusing on Jewish participation, in the panel discussion “Culture Brokers: Publishing / The Book Trade.” A copresentation of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Book Council, the talk features S&S executive vice president and publisher Jonathan Karp, Open Road CEO (and former HarperCollins president and CEO) Jane Friedman, former Random House director Jason Epstein, and Schocken Books editorial director Altie Karper. It should be a lively discussion about power, money, digitalization — oh, and actual literature, one would hope.

FIRST SATURDAYS: GO

GO: A COMMUNITY-CURATED OPEN STUDIO PROJECT
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, December 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

During its December free First Saturday program, the Brooklyn Museum will be collecting supplies for people and public schools affected by Hurricane Sandy, asking visitors to bring such items as baby diapers and wipes, hand sanitizer, construction paper, pencils, crayons, and notebooks. Among the special events scheduled for the evening are concerts by Underground System Afrobeat, Maya Azucena, and Avan Lava; screenings of Flex Is Kings, followed by a dance demonstration and a Q&A with directors Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols, and Jim Hubbard’s United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, in honor of a Day With(out)Art / World AIDS Day; a Book Club talk with Cristy C. Road about her new graphic novel, Spit and Passion; an excerpt from Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival; an interactive hunt led by Ben McKelahan; a talk with some of the artists included in the new exhibition “GO: a community-curated open studio project”; community-action art talks with Laura Braslow and Ian Marvy; a dance performance by L.O.U.D.; and more. Also on view at the museum now are “Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe,” “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” “Jean-Michel Othoniel: My Way,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” in addition to long-term installations and the permanent collection.

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAN

Four imprisoned Yiddishists contemplate their fate in gripping new play by Nathan Englander (photo by Joan Marcus)

Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St. below Astor Pl.
Extended through December 16, $75-$85 ($35 if you use the promotion code “friend”)
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org

Inspired by actual events, Nathan Englander’s The Twenty-Seventh Man is a powerful, Kafka-esque drama about totalitarianism, freedom of speech, and the impending death of Yiddish literature. Expanded from his short story in the 1999 collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, the gripping one-act play is set in 1952 in a dank Soviet cell where Moishe Bretzky (Daniel Oreskes), Yevgeny Zunser (Ron Rifkin), and Vasily Korinsky (Chip Zien) have been imprisoned. Three of the seminal Yiddish writers of their time, Bretzky the poet is a big bear of a man, Zunser the novelist is a quiet, humble thinker, and Korinsky is a brash shill for the state who is certain an error has been made and that Joseph Stalin himself will free him. The three men are soon joined by a mysterious boy named Pinchas Pelovits (Noah Robbins), the twenty-seventh man arrested. Pelovits seems to know a lot about the other writers, but they have no idea who he is or why he is part of this elite, endangered group of Yiddishists. As the four men explore literature, politics, and Jewish identity under Stalin’s brutal regime, Korinsky demands to see the agent in charge (Byron Jennings) despite the guard’s (Happy Anderson) physical threats and own fears. Directed by Public Theater Shakespeare veteran Barry Edelstein, The Twenty-Seventh Man is superbly acted, each man bringing unique qualities to their very different roles. Michael McGarty’s set of hardened steel is claustrophobic despite being open on three sides, as if the possibility of freedom is within the victims’ grasp. Englander’s (The Ministry of Special Cases) skillful, incisive dialogue is a wonder of economy, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats while avoiding becoming pedantic or overly sentimental, proving him to be as adept a playwright as he is a novelist and short story writer.

THE 2012 NEW YORK CHOCOLATE SHOW

Håkan Mårtensson admires his deluxe chocolate creations for Fika from last year but unfortunately is unable to attend 2012 show because of Hurricane Sandy (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
November 9-11, $35-$40
www.chocolateshow.com
2012 chocolate show photo album

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, and other health-related organizations, the consumption of dark chocolate is good for you. It improves coronary circulation, provides antioxidants that might help battle cancer, and is even beneficial for the teeth. Not that we needed that information to continue out steady intake of dark chocolate, but it’s great to know as we prepare for the fifteenth annual Chocolate Show, being held November 9-11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion. A bevy of chocolatiers, pastry chefs, cookbook authors, and other gourmands will fill four thousand square feet with all kinds of chocolate, which has been a beloved part of the human diet dating back four thousand years to the Amazon. One of our favorite things to do every year is to sample the dark chocolate as companies strive to make a nonbitter delight reaching toward the 99% mark. Among the standouts from past shows that we’ll be looking forward to again are the Grenada Chocolate Company, 5th Avenue Chocolatiere, Rogue Confections, Co Co. Sala, Salt of the Earth Bakery, and Guittard. (Several exhibitors had to pull out because of Hurricane Sandy; keep watching this post for further changes.) Founded by Sylvie Douce and François Jeantet, the Chocolate Show is an international affair, now being held in cities in France, Russia, Korea, England, and Japan as well as the United States. This year’s fête features a Kids Zone, cooking demonstrations, book signings, culinary discussions, and more, featuring appearances by such chocolate specialists as Fritz Knipschildt, Donald Wressell, Chocolatina, Steve Klc, Johnny Iuzzini, Debbie Prinz, Francine Segan, Martin Howard, and a slew of chefs from the Institute of Culinary Education. This year the Chocolate Show has also teamed up with New York Cares for a coat drive to help those people in the tristate area affected by Hurricane Sandy, so bring a jacket along with the admission price, which is $35 on Friday and Sunday and $40 on Saturday, with two children (between the ages of five and twelve) admitted free with each adult.

Mott Green’s Grenada Chocolate Company is once again one of the standouts at the annual New York Chocolate Show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: The 2012 New York Chocolate Show did not disappoint, despite some late cancellations because of Hurricane Sandy and the concurrent running of the second show in Lyon. Among our new and returning favorites this year are the Grenada Chocolate Company’s Salty-Licious bar, Prestat’s Dark Chocolate with Raspberry bar, 5th Avenue Chocolatiere’s cold signature truffle, H.S. Chocolate’s maple bacon chocomel, Pacari’s Cuzco Pink Salt & Nibs bar, Salt of the Earth’s oatmeal chocolate-chip cookie, François Payard’s Parisian macarons, Gnosis’s health-conscious healing raw chocolate peach Goddess Bar, Maria Luisa Rodriguez’s orange zest Jazz Brownies, and Fleur Jerusalemy’s elegantly designed, hand-painted, New York-centric Fleur de Xocoatl collection. As usual, we came home with more chocolate than we could possibly imagine — in addition to gorging ourselves at the show with all the free samples — but is that really so bad? As we noted above, chocolate is good for you, so why not indulge?

SOPHIE CALLE: THE ADDRESS BOOK

Sophie Calle’s ADDRESS BOOK is finally available in English

192 Books
192 Tenth Ave. at 21st St.
Wednesday, November 7, free with RSVP, 7:00
212-255-4022
www.192books.com
www.sigliopress.com

Nearly thirty years ago, French conceptual multimedia artist Sophie Calle found an address book in the street and decided to create a portrait of the owner (as well as herself) by contacting all of the people listed inside. “I will get to know this man through his friends and acquaintances. I will try to discover who he is without ever meeting him,” Calle wrote at the time. She documented the results, an investigation into truth, honesty, fiction, character, and the search for information itself, in a series of columns for the daily paper Libération that enraged the owner of the address book, Pierre D., who demanded she never show the work again during his lifetime. Alas, he is no longer with us, so now we have the first-ever English-language publication of The Address Book (Siglio, September 2012, $29.95), designed as an actual lightweight address book, complete with Calle’s notes and photographs. Calle will be at 192 Books in Chelsea on November 7 at 7:00, signing copies of the new book. Space is limited, so advance reservations are required by calling 212-255-4022.